Dark Eldar are overall the most fragile army out there. You have options to make yourself tougher, but you really cannot deny having your transports armor 10 and open topped that you are going to lose them. Probably all of them. When that happens you are going to lose your warriors and wyches on board, maybe not all of them, but a good number of them. worthy of a break test ( I have even lost 8 out of 10).
Stronger units, wracks incubi etc have a much better chance of surviving an exploding raider and as such can be used differently. Here I am speaking mostly of raiders attached to Warriors and Wyches.

I use a Raider for really only two things,

1. Transports: Getting your units where you can use them. Raiders are excellent for this, they are fast and open topped. Meaning I can fleet and assault out of each vehicle, giving me incredible assault ranges, and or rapid fire or blaster range. A raider takes a 18" blaster and turns it into a 33" shot.

2. A fast moving flat out block. Unless you are playing an annihilation game, and even then sometimes, I often use fast moving raiders to fly their full distance turning sideways to give the maximum blockage and line of sight denial possible. Remember line of sight is from a models eyes (or where they should be). What this does is slow the enemy down and allow for you take board control/flank or whatever it is you need. Also remember that if someone tries to Ram through your raider, you get a 3+ dodge, and if successful they stop where they are and do not get through. I have been known to do this until I run out of raiders, sometimes keeping units pinned into a little area for most of the game.

I do not think of a Raider as a weapons platform, because of what it is wielding. A single shot is not worth field control, or the chance of not getting my units where I can use them. The great thing is though, that once I deliver my troops, I still fire, so it is not like I am giving up on the usage of the gun. I still fire them, and if they live long enough they will keep on firing until I have another use for them.

So what do I do with them besides shooting once their troops have been delivered? Simple, they fire and move into position for the next unit that may need to get into them. This comes around for late game movement, or when you must get the hell out of dodge and somewhere else looks much nicer.

One load out I enjoy using, is aethersails, shock prow, and a flickerfield. I would not suggest this tactic for the squeamish. I simply turn roll my aethersail bonus distance and declare my Ram. This often gives a S10 hit. You simply need to get just over 24" of movement. An empty raider round 1 slamming into opposing transports works better than firing its gun. It stops your opponent dead in the water most of the time, and often they have a raider in their face getting a 4+ flat out save. I have done this several times now with 2-3 raiders ramming round 1. It's a ton of fun.

The Point: I do not think of raiders like I do using Razorbacks or Chimeras. Here my guys want to stay inside, while firing until they are needed to get out. With Dark Eldar Raiders we cannot afford to do this, as an exploding raider kills warriors and wyches faster for your opponent than if he had shot at them. Stronger units, wracks incubi etc have a much better chance of surviving an exploding raider and as such can be used differently.

6
Comments:

Getting into business, your shock prow raiders+aethersails tactic really interests me, you can even kill a monolith with this! the problem is the raider is likely gonna blow up from the impact too isnt it? even if it has flickerfield... and 70 points for a single S10 hit... dunno. Its there any rulebending to save my poor raider from that "backwards" S10 hit (tank 1, armor 1, speed 8 = 10) when it rams into, lets say, a rhino?

The reason I have been doing it a lot lately, is it gives me that first round jump on my opponent. It auto hits, and a smoked or vehicle in cover doesnt stop this hit. The purpose is getting that jump on my opponent tactically. If I can stop my opponent round, it gives me a tactical field position. Raider survival was bad until I put on the flickershield. Even though I still lose them, Now my opponent either has a floating piece of junk in front of him, or a crater.

There are tons of tactical reasons to do this, being that you are a vulnerable 18" range army, or you need to get your webways open undisturbed, or to just get your assault troops into position.

I have been playing lists that often send in two raiders like this. "I am going to lose them anyways, So I will be the one that decides when and where and gain every advantage I can while I do it".

The last two games, I did not lose my raiders when they rammed. However I do not count on them surviving, and I have lost plenty this way.

Well Patterick,Natfka wasn't talking about Tank Shocking but ramming. You can't tank shock a vehicle and if you ram your have to go as fast as you can, this is where the Enhanced Aethersails tend to help.

I'm glad I read your advice on this, it really makes sense to block you opponent.To me it is still a little too gambling to throw in 140 point for 2 S10 hits. The thing is: you can still roll 1 or 2 on the damage results and only have a wreck or crater in front of them.Now they have extra cover in front of their line.

It might immobilise a transport coming at you but my mathhammer brain isn't convinced yet.Especially because I by those Raiders in the first place to have the transport capacity!

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